You might think that all you need to know about drinking champagne is how to properly enjoy a glass of bubbly. Well, the truth is, there’s more to it than just popping a cork and taking a swig. You need to know how to hold your champagne glass properly so that you’re getting the most out of each sip. Let’s face it: Most people don’t have ‘Champagne-fl declaration’ moments where they suddenly see their friends and family members sipping sparkling wine from flute glasses, sparkly stemware, or wine goblets. When you hear someone say they drink Champagne, you probably think they mean in a generic way—like when they say they like beer or cider. The truth is, there are different types of Champagne and different ways to enjoy it that are best for different occasions.
How To Hold A Champagne Glass?
1. Start with the outside
When you’re holding a champagne glass, the important thing to remember is that the glass is designed to be held by its rim. The top part of the glass was designed to allow easy access to serve champagne or sparkling wine. So, when you hold the most surface area of a champagne flute, you’re actually pouring too much champagne into it.
2. Start with the rim
The rim of the glass should be facing up when held in both hands. So, you should always hold champagne glasses first with your hand on top, and then place them in your mouth to drink. So that you don’t pour too much champagne into the glass, keep an eye on the level at which you’re pouring and raise the glass slightly to avoid spilling a bit of bubbly.
3. Drink from the inside rim
Once you’ve got a good grip on your champagne flute in both hands, and you’ve managed to keep it balanced without spilling any bubbles all over yourself or your friend’s tablecloth, tilt it so that that’s where your lips are facing when you drink from it. You’ll notice that all the bubbles come out of the inside rim—the dip in between the bottom of a champagne flute and its stem—and not from below, like they do in a regular wine glass. Remember to lift up on this part of your glass before taking a sip so that any remaining bubbles don’t shoot themselves into someone’s face! (And be careful when drinking—don’t tip it towards your mouth!)
4. Hold by stem
The stem is also useful for holding a champagne glass as well as for taking sips from it with ease. As we already mentioned above, this part was designed to let people actually serve champagne or sparkling wine from these glasses; therefore they’re very rigid and straight. So when you’re holding a champagne glass by the stem, you can get more of the surface area in contact with your mouth to drink from.
5. Polish it
When properly taught and trained, the correct technique for sharing a bottle of champagne is to hold a half-filled champagne flute at approximately chin level and then let it linger in front of your face so that the bubbles spill out onto your nose. You should also be careful not to spill too much into your mouth or on any other part of your face or clothing because there’s no need to do this—a little goes a long way! Once you’ve mastered this skill, try placing the end of a napkin into the tip of the glass first before taking sips from them, and enjoy cleaning up after yourself with ease!
Why Does It Matter How You Drink Champagne?
1. It tastes better
Champagne and sparkling wine are known for their effervescence, but this also means that you should take a sip quickly and then hold it in your mouth to enjoy as many of the bubbles as possible. The name comes from two French words; “froissement” means fizzing or “bouncing,” and “champagne” means strong, so the idea is that you should let all those bubbles pour out of your glass because if you hold the cup upside down, or swirl it, or mix it up or anything like that, you won’t get to experience all of its beautiful properties! (Plus all those swirling motions will just make crystal clear sparkling wine cloudy; who wants that?)
2. It’s easier to appreciate when served well
In our day-to-day lives, we usually don’t get to enjoy a proper tipple of champagne in a proper glass with a proper stem. However, if you’re not careful with how you drink it, then you won’t be able to fully experience all that the effervescence can bring. What’s interesting is that experts say that even expert tipplers experience the same feelings when they drink sparkling wine—the bubbles tickle your nose and are so delightful they make you smile or laugh.
3. You’ll have to toil less to chug it down!
The trick is drinking champagne by keeping both the glass and your mouth moving at a steady pace. If you swirl or slowly sip, or hold the cup in one hand while you drink, then you’ll go through more and waste more of the product! So in order to get the most out of your bubbly joy, make sure that you’re always drinking at a moderate speed and keeping a steady pace.
4. It tastes better for longer
As we just discussed, champagne will be better if held for a little bit before being sipped directly because this is how it was meant to be enjoyed; however, sparkling wine has some great benefits as well. While an obvious benefit is that dropping the bottle means that you’re left with more for later—that way you can enjoy juice from the bottle without resorting to other methods—the other is a longer life-span relative to other wines. Some experts state that “dry champagne lives longer than other whites” because of its high acidity. This means that lesser amounts of oxygen are able to reach it through carbon dioxide transfer, making it stay fresh and delicate as if it had just been made yesterday!
5. It’s not as much work
James Bond had his favorite champagne pourer named Jaws; however, when you’re holding a bottle of bubbly by its stem instead of pouring it out into your glass or otherwise, you’re only drinking from 1/4 to 1/2 of the product. And this makes for a wine that lasts way longer, which means you don’t have to get up so often to take another drink!
6. It’s wonderful for dress-up
If you have a wedding, a party, or need a gift for an important guest in your life, then champagne is a great choice for the occasion. But be careful—sparkling wine is intended to be enjoyed in a proper glass and stem arrangement as it was intended by the manufacturer. This means that if you have plans to serve sparkling wine as part of some other drink (like refreshing beers or mixed drinks), then you might want to reconsider what kind of glass and stem you use. Also, note that it’s not recommended that champagne itself be mixed with weaker wines like reds or whites—it might actually diminish the flavor and make it more bitter rather than more subtle!
Different Types Of Champagne And Drinking Styles
1. Brut, semi-dry or fizzy
Brut is the most common type of champagne, accounting for about 70% of the global production. This means that it’s a light-bodied wine with relatively high acidity, often without aging or filtering. To make champagne brut, grapes are fermented off the skins and then pressed in big vats using this method. The resulting wine is dry (with only 0.04 grams per liter) and very crisp and characteristic of bubbles (as opposed to wines with lower amounts of alcohol where you may find fewer carbonation components).
2. Sparkling or effervescent
Sparkling wine is bubbly wine that has been aged in a bottle for at least a year, which gives it its effervescent quality. This means that there’s carbon dioxide in the liquid, and this is what causes the bubbles to form. The VSQ designation stands for “very special sparkling wine” since it tells the winery how much carbon dioxide the champagne had while aging. More on this later!
3. Sweet or dessert wines
“Sweet” wines are actually quite dry when compared to a traditional sweet red or white wine, with values between 12 and 14 grams per liter (0.5-0.6%; for comparison, table wines can have about 11 grams per liter—not as dry). e cream!
4. Cava (also called Spanish champagne)
Cava is usually sparkling wine made from 100% parellada grapes: Muscat Blanc, Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, and Pinot Blanc. This means that the alcohol content is lower than traditional champagne at around 5% (although some people may argue this number varies depending on which type of grapes are used —but that’s a different topic).
5. Mousseux (a type of effervescent champagne)
A mousseux is a mousse-like dessert wine, usually served chilled as opposed to ice cold. They’re normally made out of fruits, especially those in season, and must be blended together with some sparkling wine.
Conclusion
In order to get the most out of each glass of champagne, you need to know how to hold it properly. There are many different ways to hold a glass of champagne and the beauty of it is that you can experiment to find the style that works best for you. The most important thing you can do is try out different types of champagne and see what you like best. As with most things in life, you get what you put into it. So, go ahead and experiment with different types of champagne. You might be surprised at how differently different styles of bubbly taste! Keep in mind that if you’re having a meeting or event where you’ll be serving champagne, you need to rent a bar or sit at a table. Don’t just pour everyone a glass and take it to the chairs—you could spill your drink on your guests or table clothes!
